Stop Overpaying for AI Models
Most teams waste 50–90% of AI spend by using the wrong default model. Compare costs, see the cheapest options by use case, and choose a better-fit model.
Pricing data is periodically reviewed for accuracy.
Best value picks right now
Best Overall Value
DeepSeek V4 Flash
DeepSeek
Highest balance of quality and cost across the dataset.
In: $0.0001/1K
Out: $0.0002/1K
Typical moderate usage: ~$0.08/mo
Cheapest Overall
DeepSeek V4 Flash
DeepSeek
Lowest typical monthly spend for routine moderate usage.
In: $0.0001/1K
Out: $0.0002/1K
Typical moderate usage: ~$0.08/mo
Best for Coding
DeepSeek V4 Flash
DeepSeek
Strong code quality at meaningfully lower cost than premium flagships.
In: $0.0001/1K
Out: $0.0002/1K
Typical moderate usage: ~$0.08/mo
Best for Writing
Mistral Large
Mistral
Reliable writing quality without paying flagship-tier rates.
In: $0.0020/1K
Out: $0.0060/1K
Typical moderate usage: ~$2/mo
Most users overpay with one bad default
Using GPT-4o or Claude Sonnet for every task can multiply costs unnecessarily. Smaller models often cut spend by 90%+ for routine coding, support, writing, and summarization.
Find a cheaper setupNew model
GPT-5.5 is powerful, but expensive as a default
GPT-5.5 is best treated as a premium model for complex coding, professional work, and agentic workflows. If you route every simple prompt to GPT-5.5, you may overpay quickly. Use cheaper models for routine tasks and reserve GPT-5.5 for work where the higher success rate matters.
See GPT-5.5 pricing →Full AI model pricing comparison
Ranked by typical moderate monthly usage (~500K input + 200K output tokens).
Pricing can change. Model prices are shown from the listed provider source and last verified date.
| Model | Provider | Input/1K | Output/1K | Typical /mo | Best for | Value | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ChatGPT Free | OpenAI | $0 | $0 | Free | chat, writing | Best value | Use this model |
Claude (Free) | Anthropic | $0 | $0 | Free | writing, reasoning, chat | Best value | Use this model |
Gemini Free | $0 | $0 | Free | chat, writing | Best value | Use this model | |
Cursor Free | Cursor | $0 | $0 | Free | coding | Best value | Use this model |
GitHub Copilot Free | GitHub/Microsoft | $0 | $0 | Free | coding | Best value | Use this model |
DeepSeek V4 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.0001 $0.0000 cached | $0.0002 | ~$0.08/mo | budget, high-volume, coding | Best value | Use this model |
Gemini 1.5 Flash | $0.0001 | $0.0003 | ~$0.10/mo | budget, automation, chat | Best value | Use this model | |
Mistral Small | Mistral | $0.0001 | $0.0003 | ~$0.11/mo | budget, automation, chat | Best value | Use this model |
GPT-4o Mini | OpenAI | $0.0001 $0.0001 cached | $0.0006 | ~$0.20/mo | budget, automation, chat | Best value | Use this model |
Grok 4 Fast | xAI | $0.0002 | $0.0005 | ~$0.20/mo | budget, reasoning, high-volume | Best value | Calculate cost |
Llama 3.1 70B | Meta (self-hosted) | $0.0004 | $0.0004 | ~$0.28/mo | coding, automation, research | Best value | Calculate cost |
Codestral | Mistral | $0.0003 | $0.0009 | ~$0.33/mo | coding | Best value | Calculate cost |
DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek | $0.0003 $0.0001 cached | $0.0011 | ~$0.36/mo | general, budget, coding | Situational | Use this model |
Claude 3 Haiku | Anthropic | $0.0003 $0.0000 cached | $0.0013 | ~$0.38/mo | budget, support, chat | Situational | Use this model |
Llama 3.1 Instruct 70B ⚠ Needs manual pricing review No official Meta API pricing source verified; pricing is based on third-party served-model data. | Meta | $0.0006 | $0.0006 | ~$0.39/mo | open-weight, budget, general | Situational | Calculate cost |
Qwen Coder ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Official Alibaba/Qwen international pricing source requires manual confirmation. | Alibaba | $0.0003 | $0.0012 | ~$0.41/mo | coding, budget | Situational | Calculate cost |
Groq (Llama 3.1 70B) | Groq | $0.0006 | $0.0008 | ~$0.45/mo | automation, coding | Best value | Calculate cost |
DeepSeek Coder V2 ⚠ Needs manual pricing review | DeepSeek | $0.0005 | $0.0015 | ~$0.55/mo | coding, budget | Best value | Use this model |
Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.0003 $0.0000 cached | $0.0025 | ~$0.65/mo | reasoning, high-volume, automation | Situational | Use this model | |
DeepSeek R1 | DeepSeek | $0.0007 | $0.0025 | ~$0.85/mo | reasoning, research, coding | Situational | Use this model |
Amazon Bedrock ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Pricing varies significantly by model provider, modality, and region. Check AWS Bedrock pricing page for specific model rates. | Amazon | $0.0008 | $0.0024 | ~$0.88/mo | enterprise, agentic, general | Situational | Calculate cost |
Grok Build 0.1 | xAI | $0.0010 $0.0002 cached | $0.0020 | ~$0.90/mo | coding, agentic | Situational | Calculate cost |
Qwen General ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Official Alibaba/Qwen international pricing source requires manual confirmation. | Alibaba | $0.0006 | $0.0036 | ~$1/mo | general, reasoning | Situational | Calculate cost |
Grok 4.3 | xAI | $0.0013 $0.0002 cached | $0.0025 | ~$1/mo | general, reasoning, coding | Situational | Calculate cost |
GPT-5.4 mini | OpenAI | $0.0008 $0.0001 cached | $0.0045 | ~$1/mo | coding, automation, subagents | Situational | Use this model |
o3-mini | OpenAI | $0.0011 $0.0006 cached | $0.0044 | ~$1/mo | reasoning, budget | Situational | Use this model |
Claude 3.5 Haiku | Anthropic | $0.0010 | $0.0050 | ~$2/mo | budget, chat, automation | Situational | Use this model |
Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | $0.0010 $0.0001 cached | $0.0050 | ~$2/mo | budget, chat, automation | Situational | Use this model |
Gemini 1.5 Pro | $0.0013 | $0.0050 | ~$2/mo | research, long-context, general | Situational | Use this model | |
Mistral Large | Mistral | $0.0020 $0.0002 cached | $0.0060 | ~$2/mo | general, europe, writing | Best value | Use this model |
o3 | OpenAI | $0.0020 $0.0005 cached | $0.0080 | ~$3/mo | reasoning, coding | Situational | Use this model |
Gemini 2.5 Pro | $0.0013 $0.0001 cached | $0.01 | ~$3/mo | coding, reasoning, general | Situational | Use this model | |
GPT-4o | OpenAI | $0.0025 $0.0013 cached | $0.01 | ~$3/mo | general, chat, writing | Situational | Use this model |
Command R+ | Cohere | $0.0025 | $0.01 | ~$3/mo | research, rag, enterprise | Situational | Calculate cost |
GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $0.0025 $0.0003 cached | $0.01 | ~$4/mo | coding, professional-work, general | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Anthropic | $0.0030 | $0.01 | ~$5/mo | coding, writing, research | Situational | Use this model |
Grok 4 | xAI | $0.0030 | $0.01 | ~$5/mo | general, reasoning, coding | Situational | Calculate cost |
Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | $0.0030 $0.0003 cached | $0.01 | ~$5/mo | coding, writing, research | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | $0.0050 $0.0005 cached | $0.03 | ~$8/mo | coding, agentic, professional-work | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $0.0050 $0.0005 cached | $0.03 | ~$9/mo | coding, professional-work, agentic | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
Rytr ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Pricing likely current but requires official confirmation. | Rytr | $0 | $0 | ~$9/mo | writing, content, budget | Best value | Use this model |
GPT-4 Turbo | OpenAI | $0.01 | $0.03 | ~$11/mo | legacy, general | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
ChatGPT Plus | OpenAI | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | chat, writing, research | Situational | Use this model |
Claude Pro | Anthropic | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | writing, research, coding | Situational | Use this model |
Google One AI Premium | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | research, chat, writing | Situational | Use this model | |
Cursor Pro | Cursor | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | coding | Situational | Use this model |
Perplexity Pro | Perplexity | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | research | Situational | Use this model |
Writesonic ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Writesonic plan names/prices may have changed; verify official pricing before relying on this amount. | Writesonic | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | writing, content, budget | Best value | Use this model |
Claude Code | Anthropic | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | coding, agentic | Situational | Use this model |
Windsurf Pro | Codeium | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | coding | Situational | Calculate cost |
Replit Core | Replit | $0 | $0 | ~$20/mo | coding, agentic, prototyping | Situational | Calculate cost |
Claude 3 Opus | Anthropic | $0.01 | $0.07 | ~$23/mo | premium, writing, research | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
Copy.ai ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Stored price may represent annual billing equivalent. Confirm month-to-month price for consistent comparison. | Copy.ai | $0 | $0 | ~$36/mo | writing, content, marketing | Situational | Use this model |
Jasper | Jasper AI | $0 | $0 | ~$49/mo | writing, content, marketing | Situational | Use this model |
GPT-5.5 Pro | OpenAI | $0.03 | $0.18 | ~$51/mo | premium, reasoning, coding | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
Google AI Ultra ⚠ Needs manual pricing review Monthly price requires manual verification from official Google One AI Ultra page. | $0 | $0 | ~$249/mo | research, chat, writing | Premium / expensive | Use this model |
Monthly figures are estimates based on a documented moderate-usage profile and are not a quote.
Cheapest models by category
General AI
DeepSeek V4 Flash
DeepSeek
In: $0.0001/1K · Out: $0.0002/1K
Best general-purpose value across mixed workloads.
Coding
Cursor Free
Cursor
In: $0/1K · Out: $0/1K
Strong code generation at a lower cost than premium tier.
Writing
ChatGPT Free
OpenAI
In: $0/1K · Out: $0/1K
Quality writing output without paying flagship rates.
Research
Llama 3.1 70B
Meta (self-hosted)
In: $0.0004/1K · Out: $0.0004/1K
Solid long-form reasoning at a defensible price.
Productivity
DeepSeek V4 Flash
DeepSeek
In: $0.0001/1K · Out: $0.0002/1K
Cheap enough to run high-volume automated tasks.
Customer Support
Claude 3 Haiku
Anthropic
In: $0.0003/1K · Out: $0.0013/1K
Low cost per ticket while keeping helpful responses.
Actionable insights
- Cheapest capable model is dramatically less expensive than the most premium flagship — often 50× or more.
- GPT-4o Mini is far cheaper than GPT-4o for routine coding and chat work.
- DeepSeek V3 is a strong value option for research-heavy work.
- Gemini Flash is one of the lowest-cost options for high-volume automation.
The cheapest model is the one that fits your actual workload
Use the calculator or decision engine to choose the lowest-cost model that still meets your quality needs.